Category Archives: insects

A great collection of illustrations of British bugs by Ashley Wood. In many cases, nymph stages and adults are shown. An excellent reference resource – and can also be seen at the British Bugs website alongside photographs of the bugs.

This year’s Big Butterfly Count runs from 16 – 31 July. In conjunction with it, the Butterfly Effect has been developed for school children in KS2. Resources for teachers include six downloadable lesson plans and associated material – which should encourage schools to get involved. I’d certainly use it with my pupils.

Hebrew Character – a moth seen early in the year. nutmeg66 (not in Norfolk!)

This site is an extremely useful reference guide and photo archive to the moths of Norfolk. I don’t live in Norfolk, but it’s a site I use frequently to help identify unfamiliar moths and check for similar (confusion) species.

Particularly useful is the ‘Flying Tonight?’ section which gives an indication of which species are likely to be around now.

I love insects and spend a lot of time photographing them, but my drawing skills really aren’t up to much so I like to see how others represent insects in art. This ‘Venetian Red’ blog entry describes examples of the art of insects from Albrecht Durer (see illustration below) to more contemporary works.

Albrecht Durer, Stag Beetle, 1505
Watercolor on paper
Getty Museum

Well worth having a read through and then beetling off elsewhere by following the links given. (The title of the blog post, in case you were wondering and hadn’t read through the whole article, is a quote from William Blake.)

A good starting point for tracking down the identity of beetles – with the proviso to ‘please keep in mind, that determinations by photograph are uncertain in most cases, especially if the user is not familiar with species that can be easily confused.’

The ideal site for those with an interest in moths. I spend quite a bit of time here, sharing my garden moth finds with a group of fellow enthusiasts – it’s fascinating to see what can be found in our back gardens! Help with identifying tricky ones can usually be found. The majority of users of the site are in the UK/Ireland, but there are regular contributions from elsewhere.

Every month Buglife, the Invertebrate Trust, focuses on a different ‘bug’ and tells its story. Some of them are quite commonly seen; others are rarely encountered.

Snow flea (Boreus hyemalis) on moss. Image: Roger Key

The snow flea caught my eye. It’s not actually a flea; it’s a member of the scorpion fly (which aren’t flies!) family. The adult is only seen in the coldest months, lives in moss and is most easily seen when it walks on snow. I’ve never seen one, but now I’ll be looking out for them, although I don’t think there are any records of them in my part of the country.

BWARS is the national society dedicated to studying and recording bees, wasps & ants (aculeate Hymenoptera) in Britain & Ireland.

I thumbed this up ages ago, but hadn’t got round to writing anything about it. It’s a site I visit often to find out stuff about these insects – usually when I’ve photographed one and am not sure what it is. Sometimes I still don’t know what it is after looking here, but that’s less to do with the site and more to do with my inexperience – and that many can’t be identified to species level from photographs.